The present disclosure relates to toners suitable for electrophotographic apparatuses.
Numerous processes are within the purview of those skilled in the art for the preparation of toners. Emulsion aggregation (EA) is one such method. These toners may be formed by aggregating a colorant with a latex polymer formed by emulsion polymerization. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,853,943, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, is directed to a semi-continuous emulsion polymerization process for preparing a latex by first forming a seed polymer. Other examples of emulsion/aggregation/coalescing processes for the preparation of toners are illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,403,693, 5,418,108, 5,364,729, and 5,346,797, the disclosures of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. Other processes are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,527,658, 5,585,215, 5,650,255, 5,650,256 and 5,501,935, the disclosures of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
Polyester EA ultra low melt (ULM) toners have been prepared utilizing amorphous and crystalline polyester resins. While these toners may exhibit excellent fusing properties including crease minimum fixing temperature (MFT) and fusing latitude, peak gloss of these toners may be unacceptably high. These toners may exhibit poor charging characteristics, which may be due to the crystalline resin component migrating to the surface during coalescence, as well as poor toner flow and poor blocking. Improved toners thus remain desirable.